The sixth stage was spread over two days and originally consisted of 626 kilometers in the Saudi Empty Quarter. This was shortened considerably for cars and trucks, but these two categories in particular still became a real battlefield.
Van Kasteren got off to a good start on Thursday, but his lead slowly increased to almost an hour at the end of the day. On Friday he had to deal with some problems along the way, which ultimately forced him to give in three hours to Macik, who won the stage. Mitchel van den Brink finished second, but he also had to give up a lot of time: almost an hour and six minutes. Ales Loprais finished third, almost an hour and thirteen minutes behind, ahead of Van Kasteren.
Big differences
The differences between the trucks were now so great that Van Kasteren still finished fourth in the stage. Vick Versteijnen finished fifth. A lot of trucks behind them arrive with hours of lost time after this extremely tough stage. This also applies to numbers four and five in the general classification, Pascal de Baar and Gert Huzink. Huzink is more than 17 (!) hours behind, while Pascal de Baar is still standing still in the desert. They can also forget about a good ranking in the general classification.
Macik is now in the lead in the general classification with +1.16.42 ahead of Loprais. Mitchel van den Brink is now the best Dutchman in third place with +1.49.59. Van Kasteren follows behind at +2.37.53 behind.
Car ranking turned upside down
There were also large differences in the finishing times among the cars. After classification leader Yazeed Al Rajhi dropped out on Thursday, today it was Nasser Al-Attiyah who threw away his classification. Due to mechanical problems he arrived more than two hours and 45 minutes behind. Stéphane Peterhansel also disappeared from the general classification, because the Frenchman lost more than three hours of time. Vaidotas Zala, number 7 in the general classification, also disappears from the top 10.
Carlos Sainz now takes over the lead, followed by Audi stablemate Mattias Ekström: +20.21. Sebastien Loeb follows in third at +29.31. Tim Coronel is the best Dutchman in 25th place. Maik Willems is 34th.
Small differences in the engines
Among the engines, the differences were smaller after stage six. However, Skyler Howes (Thursday) and Joan Barreda Bort (Friday) had to drop out after they could no longer repair their engines following mechanical problems. Pablo Quintanilla was the big loser on Friday; he lost almost two hours.
The sixth stage was won by Adrien van Beveren; the Frenchman was ahead of Toby Price with +4.13. Rickt Brabec came third at +5.02 minutes. Brabec is now in the lead in the general classification; he has a lead of just 51 seconds over Ross Branch. José Cornejo Florimo follows third at +14.14 minutes.
Grouwels drops out among challengers
For Roger Grouwels, stage six meant the end station. The Dutchman had mechanical trouble with his challenger and had to abandon it in the desert. The stage went well for Paul Spierings: the Dutchman finished tenth.
Broadcast
An extensive report of the Dakar rally can be seen tonight at 7.25 pm on RTL 7. Episodes of RTL GP: Dakar 2024 can be watched on Videoland. This can be done for free and without an account with Videoland TV Gemist for up to seven days.
